Delusions, jealousy play in hostage drama

CPL. RENE PRAJELE stares out of the Peñafrancia Tours bus before surrendering to authorities at the end of a five-hour hostage drama in Del Gallego, Camarines Sur. PHOTO COURTESY OF ARMY 9TH ID PUBLIC AFFAIRS OFFICE

LEGAZPI CITY—Cpl. Rene Prajele had no derogatory record while in military service before he decided to take hostage 30 people in a Manila-bound bus in Camarines Sur province on Friday.

Though prone to commit minor offenses like other Army enlisted men in his unit, Prajele, 36, was considered by his superior, Col. Claudio Yucot, to have had shown normal behavior despite his mood swings.

Yucot led the Army’s 9th Infantry Battalion, 9th Infantry Division, stationed in Bicol, to which Prajele belongs. He is now commanding officer of the Army Personnel Management Center (APMC) in Fort Bonifacio in Taguig City.

He said he knew the soldier to be hardworking and was often deployed for security operations. This was before Prajele made headlines on May 29 for holding passengers in a Peñafrancia Tours bus against their will in an almost five-hour hostage drama in Del Gallego town in Camarines Sur.

Yucot and his wife, Maria Theresa, stood as sponsors in Prajele’s wedding in 2007. Despite the distance and separation from each other after they were assigned to different units, Prajele kept in touch with him like a real son.

5 hours

Col. Amador T. Tabuga Jr., head of the Army’s 902nd IB, said Prajele was planning to bring the bus and its passengers to Fort Bonifacio and surrender to his “Ninong Claudio.”

In full battle gear and holding his Army-issued M-16 rifle, the soldier took over the bus at around 10:15 a.m. on Friday in Sipocot town, also in Camarines Sur, before they were stopped at a police checkpoint in Del Gallego.

Tabuga said Prajele was under 31st IB stationed in Sorsogon province.

Before heading to Del Gallego, a team of soldiers under the 49th IB led by Lt. Jhumlyod Legazpi tried to talk with Prajele at a barricade set up in Ragay town, Camarines Sur, at around 11 a.m. He was slightly agitated and angry when they tried to stop him, Legazpi said.

Fiesta

“We let the bus pass through our barricade because there was a fiesta celebration during that time. A lot more (people) would have been compromised,” he said.

Tabuga said Prajele showed signs of anxiety and stress but was not violent. The hostages themselves would later testify that Prajele only told them to sit down and showed no sign of anger.

At around 1 p.m., the bus was flagged down at a police-military checkpoint along the Maharlika Highway in Barangay Comadaycaday, Del Gallego. This time, Prajele’s mood started to change and demanded that the bus be allowed to pass through by constantly hitting the horn,

according to negotiators.

Tabuga was already at the checkpoint and later provided support to a hastily formed crisis management team. Del Gallego Mayor Lydia Abarientos, team leader, said she and another member, Ragay Mayor Ricardo Aquino, were unprepared to handle hostage-taking situations.

Marital troubles

All through this time, Prajele had been texting and calling his “Ninong.”

Yucot said Prajele would constantly text him about his marital issues to ask for advice or just checking on him and his family like a relative would.

“I knew he had a big problem burdening him when he suddenly called me after six months of not hearing from him,” the officer said.

He said Prajele told him that armed men were after him and that his life was in danger. “He told me to claim his body should anything happen to him. He wanted me to personally take his body home to his family,” he said.

After hours of negotiations, Abarientos said Prajele showed signs of “calming down” around 4 p.m.

Tabuga, a seasoned negotiator and crisis management handler, said it was common sense and patience that helped them do his job and veered the soldier away from his delusions of danger. He said he learned this from similar situations during the siege of Zamboanga City by Moro rebels in 2013.

Abarientos said she and Aquino simply employed kindness and understanding.

Thirty minutes later, Prajele stepped out of the bus to surrender, ending the drama.

Jealousy

Yucot said he believed Prajele’s fears were unfounded and caused by stresses related to work.

He said there was no proof to the soldier’s allegations that his wife, whom he did not name, was cheating on him. Prajele, a native of Cotabato City, and his wife, a native of Baao town, Camarines Sur, have a 9-year-old son.

Yucot said the soldier was quite normal but had a sensitive, even moody, side. According to his unit mates, he showed signs of being absent-minded, but that his behavior was not that serious to warrant a recommendation for psychological examination.

Soldiers who are often placed on field duty undergo seminars on stress management before deployment and stress debriefing after their

duty, said Capt. Mardjorie Panesa, public information officer of the 9th ID.

Prajele posted a P40,000 bail on a case of slight illegal detention filed against him at the Regional Trial Court Branch 29 in Libmanan town, Camarines Sur. He was immediately taken to the barracks of the 9th ID in Pili town, Camarines Sur, to await a psychological evaluation before the administrative case is filed against him, Panesa said.